Today staff from Westpac bank once again helped us with a variety of walking track maintenance projects.  The group arrived first thing in the morning and included Bruno, Cherrie, Cheryl, Christin, Jarrod, Joey, Joy, Kaushik, Ken, Lynette, Molood, Ramon, Roger, Sam, Scott, Sonja, Vib and Wayne.  Also joining us for the day was our good friend and regular volunteer Alan.

Because almost everyone in the group was new to CUE Haven, we took some time to get acquainted over morning tea.  Mahrukh gave an introduction to the CUE Haven project and the plans for the future.

Thomas then gave a safety briefing and a description of the work planned for the day.

The plan for the day was to continue our spring walking track maintenance work. 

We walked out to the work site and Thomas explained the issues to be addressed.  We walked along the wetlands boardwalk and Thomas pointed out areas where ground movement had caused issues with the boardwalk and then continued onto the Tirairaka track where ground movement and water flow had moved side boards out of alignment and erosion had caused a lot of wear and tear on a set of steps connecting the track and the Manuka track.  Additionally, thanks to warm spring weather, everything is growing well and there was a lot of vegetation growing over the tracks that needed to be trimmed back.

Because of the size of the group, we broke into three teams to tackle the trimming, steps and boardwalk work.

Trimming

One team worked on clearing the Manuka track of overgrown vegetation and when they finished that, they moved on to clear other areas.

The trimming team got to see a lot of the property and managed to clear several track sections. Thanks to their efforts the tracks they worked on have been really spruced up.

Boardwalk

Another team tackled some interesting engineering challenges on the wetlands boardwalk.  Two very dry summers followed by the unusually wet weather last year have affected water flow and the ground conditions in the wetlands causing movement and sinking.

The first task the team took on was the messy challenge of clearing a blocked flow under the bridge over the stream.  The stream normally flows under the bridge but after the heavy rains last year, silt coming downstream blocked the flow under the bridge so that the water has been flowing along the side of the boardwalk, causing issues further downstream.

The team went to work digging under the bridge and then dug a channel to ensure the water will take up the proper flow route. 

The stream now flows along the proper course and fans out into the wetlands rather than being channeled away.

The team then did an inspection of the boardwalk and found and fixed a variety of issues.

In areas where the boardwalk had moved out of alignment, they dug underneath and installed supporting timbers to level things off.  In other spots, they replaced warped or misaligned boards.

Where necessary, they trimmed back the vegetation in order to access the work area.

And continued down the boardwalk, fixing issues.

The team also identified areas where the mesh screen, put on the boardwalk for traction, needed to be replaced.  They cut out the segments they needed.

The replacement mesh was put in place using staples.

A big thank you to the boardwalk team—it was challenging and messy work but the boardwalk is looking great.

Track Steps

A third team took on the challenge of improving the steps connecting the Tirairaka and Manuka tracks.  Over the years erosion and ground movement have moved the steps out of alignment and we requested the team to re-engineer the steps to make them more even and level.

They took some time to study the area and come up with solutions.

They ran a string line down the side of the steps to determine the proper alignment and then discussed options to make the steps as straight as possible.  Some curvature was necessary because of the trees.

They measured the step widths to ensure they were even and where necessary relocated steps to match the ones nearby.

Risers were dug out where needed.

Many issues were resolved by simply relocating the risers, but in some cases new timber was needed to properly align the steps.  We went down to the shed and cut the boards.

Getting the new risers just right took teamwork.

The ground was levelled as each step was completed.

As one step was completed, they moved on checking the other steps for alignment and if necessary, adjustment.

Some members of this team worked on the top step to ensure a smooth transition between the track and the steps.

A big thank you to the track team. Thanks to their creativity and hard work, the steps are looking much better.  Future teams will continue with the work and install side boards to improve the appearance and prevent erosion.

Each of the teams accomplished an amazing amount of work and weren’t afraid to tackle the many challenges we gave them.  THANK YOU everyone!

Our heartfelt thanks to our dear friend Alan for once helping out for the day. Alan -we really appreciate your help and continued support.

Also, our many thanks to Bruno for organising the volunteer day and continuing to champion CUE Haven.

And a huge THANK YOU to everyone for coming out to volunteer for the day and for all your hard work and efforts.  We really enjoyed meeting you all and the interesting conversations. Your hard work and amazing contribution to CUE Haven is most appreciated. We hope you enjoyed the day as much as we did and do look forward to having you out again for another fun and productive volunteer day next year.

And we also look forward to having you out with your friends and family for a leisurely visit soon to explore more of CUE Haven.

Thank You!! Thank You!!